More Solyndra truth coming out

[jimpeel]

The hits they just keep comin'.

Of course, this is the rabidly right-wing Politico reporting this so one must take this with a grain of salt.

What ...?

Really ...?

Politico is left-wing?

[Emily Litella]Never mind.[/Emily Litella]

SOURCE

Audit: Treasury's review of Solyndra 'rushed'

By BOB KING | 4/4/12 9:56 AM EDT

The Treasury Department's review of Solyndra's $535 million federal loan guarantee was "rushed" through in about one day in March 2009, "based on an expedited review request from DOE so that a press release could be issued," according to a Treasury inspector general report that gives further evidence of the early Obama administration's eagerness to announce progress in funding clean energy.

The report, issued Tuesday, also quotes internal Treasury documents that portray the Energy Department as being under pressure to get the loan agreement out the door.

“DOE says that their hands are tied on this issue,” the audit quotes one Treasury email as saying, discussing one detail of the financing terms. “They are under pressure to complete a deal.”

Another internal Treasury email said that “the train really has left the station on this deal.”

The report also found that DOE didn't consult with Treasury on the terms and conditions of the loan deal before or during the Energy Department's own review process, including the review of Solyndra's credit worthiness.

“On March 17, 2009, OMB informed Treasury’s Office of Government Financial Policy (OGFP) that DOE would be issuing a press release on Solyndra,” says the report, adding that “OMB strongly urged Treasury to contact the DOE Office of the Secretary if Treasury wanted to weigh in on Solyndra’s terms and conditions.”

A day later, Treasury got a draft press release from DOE announcing Solyndra’s conditional loan guarantee commitment, the report says. “Treasury then agreed with a DOE request to expedite the review to March 19, 2009, so that the press release could be issued on the morning of March 20,” it adds.

Treasury officials raised concerns during a conference call on March 19, including concerns about the deal's high debt-to-equity ratio and about whether DOE could claim Solyndra’s intellectual property in the event of a default.

On March 20, DOE announced that Energy Secretary Steven Chu had offered the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra. The deal was closed that September.

The loan, while guaranteed by DOE under the 2009 stimulus law, was actually financed through Treasury's Federal Financing Bank.

“We found that Treasury did perform a consultation on the terms and conditions of the Solyndra loan guarantee,” says the audit report. “However, whether that consultation met the intent of the applicable law and regulation is not clear because Treasury’s consultative role was not sufficiently defined, the consultation that did occur was rushed, and no documentation was retained as to how Treasury’s serious concerns with the loan were addressed.”

On the other hand, the report says, “Treasury officials told us that this [one-day] time period was sufficient in the case of its review of the Solyndra loan guarantee. ”

Treasury was also not consulted on DOE's February 2011 restructuring of the loan guarantee, which has since drawn criticism for allowing some private investors to be repaid ahead of the government if Solyndra went under.

Among other steps, the IG recommended that Treasury “work with DOE to establish a common understanding of what would be considered a deviation that would constitute a substantial change in the financial terms and conditions of a loan guarantee and require Treasury’s consultation.”

In a response to POLITICO, the Energy Department said Wednesday that the Solyndra loan guarantee received ample review before being approved.

"The Treasury Department's Inspector General report makes clear that Treasury Department officials believed they had enough time to evaluate the terms,” DOE said in a statement. “The simple fact is that the review was exhaustive — involving technical, legal and financial experts from three federal agencies for more than 1,000 days spanning two administrations.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:53 a.m. on April 4, 2012.

 

[Winky]

I will pass that along

 

[Professur]

What still grates on me is that they had millions of dollars in unpaid inventory that all was destroyed (not even offered at auction) when they closed. Several competitors heard about the destruction and tried to buy the remainder .. only to be refused.

 

[Winky]

that ethos is coming here

 

[2minkey]

personally i think we should just let the chinese dominate the shit out of every form of energy.

 

[Winky]

I second that

Love how they wouldn't let the rare earth metals be exported
and we had to start digging them out of the ground in California

 

[Winky]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46837

 

[jimpeel]

What still grates on me is that they had millions of dollars in unpaid inventory that all was destroyed (not even offered at auction) when they closed. Several competitors heard about the destruction and tried to buy the remainder .. only to be refused.

That is probably because they never had a viable product in the first place. The entire company was a fraud.

 

[2minkey]

i'm sure some people put hard work into that endeavor and deserve to be paid. like the fuckers at the machine shop that make the custom whatever things.

nice response from the ass, peeler.

 

[catocom]

trying doesn't deserve a Medal, Winning does.

 

[2minkey]

well, you must have quite a collection of medals then.

 

[Winky]

Left wing enviro-wackos will win in the end they're insane

good try

defending this green crap is harder than
claiming that we are boiling the planet

 

[2minkey]

the people i'm talking about don't necessarily give a fuck about "green." they just got orders and made parts. probably needed the work. lemme know when y'all are done posing for the camera.

 

[catocom]

well, you must have quite a collection of medals then.

I have a couple, but I've gotten old now.

 

[Winky]

Minks is a closet neo-con

Minks are you talking about the jobs in China or Finland?

oh never mind yer brain is thoroughly washed.

 

[2minkey]

both. them chinks and finns are both getting the shaft. sometimes together. in turkish bath houses.

 

[jimpeel]

i'm sure some people put hard work into that endeavor and deserve to be paid. like the fuckers at the machine shop that make the custom whatever things.

nice response from the ass, peeler.

I never slammed the employees. I said they never had a viable product. That is why they didn't pass it on in the bankruptcy.

I'm sure the employees had great pride in what they were doing and were trying their best. What they did not realize was that their leaders in the company were in it for their own personal gain and they had no interest in the product.

I had a job in MA working for the Aster Division of Thomas & Betts. The product I was working on started life in Kent, WA but wasn't working out. They closed the plant and transferred the product to MA. I got the design and realized that the major problem was design deficiency. Crossing tolerance zones, daisy chaining of dimensions, material issues, etc.

I redesigned the product and it worked perfectly. The next thing I know they hire 40 temps to assemble these things 24/7 in three shifts. I figured they were trying to get funding from a bank or whatever and because banks will not give loans against unfinished product they were building inventory. I was wrong.

I turns out that they were building these things as competition with another fiber optic outfit. Our design was far superior to theirs and they couldn't compete. So they bought our product.

They didn't buy it to market it. They bought it to keep it off of the market. T&B sold it to them for $26 million and my share was being seen to the door.

I was told to pack up all of the design files, drawings, etc. and make sure that none of them survived on any hard drive, zip drive, floppy, or in print. The buyers took possession of all of the design materials and the finished products and all parts thereto were scrapped for the aluminum.

That was the second company that I had that happen.